The Isle Evrima Server: Setup, Settings, RCON and Cost
Run a The Isle Evrima server: Afterthought's dedicated server, self-hosting with SteamCMD, the Game.ini settings, admins by SteamID64, the RCON commands and what a server costs.
A The Isle Evrima server gives your herd its own rules instead of a fight for a slot on a full official server. This guide covers what the Evrima server is, how to host it yourself, the settings that matter, the RCON commands and what it costs on our The Isle server hosting.
- What it is: Afterthought's official dedicated server for The Isle, on the
evrimabranch of Steam, with the map Gateway. - Platforms: The Isle is a Windows PC game on Steam. There is no PlayStation or Xbox version, so every player needs a PC.
- On 1up: the server needs at least 4 GB of RAM. On Free it runs with the hourglass at ×2 (90 minutes of server time a day), and 24/7 from Starter at €5/month.
1. What a The Isle Evrima server is
The Isle is the dinosaur survival game from Afterthought LLC, in Early Access on Steam since December 2015. Every player hatches as a small dinosaur, grows by eating and drinking, and tries to stay alive. The store page says it plainly: dedicated servers, Steam integration and basic persistence are in place.
Evrima is the rebuilt branch of the game. Update #6.5 moved it to Unreal Engine 5 in June 2023, and patch 0.12.51.02 brought Gateway, the current map, to Evrima in November 2023. The latest large patch, 0.21.772 of 4 August 2026, added the Austroraptor and, among other fixes, performance drops on Linux servers with many players.
Your own server means you set the player limit, a password, whether AI creatures spawn, whether human characters are allowed and who is an admin. On official servers Afterthought decides all of that.
2. Host a The Isle server yourself
The server is free to run on your own hardware, on Windows or Linux since Update #4 of December 2021.
- Install: the dedicated server is Steam app 412680, and the Evrima build sits on the
evrimabranch. With SteamCMD:steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 412680 -beta evrima validate +quit. - Configure: the settings live in
Game.iniunderTheIsle/Saved/Config/. Afterthought published the keys in the 0.17.54 patch notes:ServerName,MapName=Gateway,MaxPlayerCount,bServerPasswordandServerPassword,bEnableHumans,bSpawnAI,GrowthMultiplierandbEnableGlobalChatunder[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession], andAdminsSteamIDsunder[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase]. - Ports and RCON: the same notes list
RconPort=8888, a default the game does not let you change, andQueuePort=10000for the queue if you turn onbQueueEnabled. The game port goes on the command line with-Port=; our image uses UDP 7777. - Player count: Afterthought writes next to
MaxPlayerCount=100that servers above 100 players are not recommended.
One honest warning: the game's networking has gone through Epic Online Services since 2022 (DevBlog #27). The patch notes do not describe the credentials the server needs for it in Engine.ini, and our image does not start without them. Add the usual costs of self-hosting: your PC stays on while anyone plays, and you open ports on your router.
3. Create a The Isle server on 1up
- Create an account and press Create server.
- Choose The Isle and a region, London or Paris. The wizard measures your ping and suggests the nearest one.
- Pick a plan. On Free, the wizard shows the hourglass at ×2 before you create the server.
- Start the server and follow the Console: the first start downloads about 1.5 GB from the
evrimabranch, then Gateway loads in under a minute. Every start brings the server to the newest build. - In the game, open the server browser under Play, Unofficial and search for the name of your server. Evrima lists servers through Epic Online Services, so give it a minute after the panel says Online.
4. The settings in the Game tab
The Game tab holds seven settings. All of them apply on restart, and the Generated file section shows the Game.ini we write from them.
| Setting | Game.ini key | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Human players | bEnableHumans | off |
| AI creatures | bSpawnAI | on |
| Max players | MaxPlayerCount | 40, at most the slots of your plan |
| Server password | ServerPassword | empty |
| Admins (SteamID64, separated by commas) | AdminsSteamIDs | empty, twenty at most |
| Server name | ServerName | your server name |
| Global chat | bEnableGlobalChat | on |
The map is always Gateway and the queue stays off. Other Game.ini keys, such as GrowthMultiplier, can be edited by hand in the Files tab and are kept at every start; only the seven fields above are written again from the panel.
Growth, the species each player picked and the bans live in the player database on the server volume, so your herd keeps its adults across restarts and updates. On plans with backups, we back that database up together with Game.ini.
5. Admins and the RCON console
Nobody is an admin until you say so. Paste your own 17-digit SteamID64, and those of anyone you trust, into Admins in the Game tab and restart; those players get the game's admin tools.
The Isle has had an RCON since patch 0.8.75.134, which Afterthought describes as working much like Source RCON. On 1up, the Console tab speaks it, with these commands:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
playerlist | Lists the players with their SteamID64 |
serverdetails | Shows the server details |
playerdata | Shows the player data |
queuestatus | Shows the state of the queue |
announce | Sends a message to everyone |
directmessage | Sends a message to one player, by SteamID64 |
kick | Kicks a player by SteamID64, with an optional reason |
save | Writes the player database |
wipecorpses | Clears the carcasses that pile up on a busy server |
The RCON never leaves the server: nobody can reach it from outside, only the panel.
6. How much a The Isle server costs
Real prices, as on our pricing page:
| Plan | Price | RAM | Slots | Backups | The Isle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | up to 2 GB, The Isle with the hourglass | 4 | none | 90 minutes of play a day, 15 hours a month |
| Starter | €5/month | 4 GB | 10 | 3 | 24/7, the game's minimum |
| Pro | €10/month | 8 GB | 30 | 5 | 24/7, our pick for a full Gateway |
How Free works: it includes 3 hours of server time a day and 30 hours a month, with no card. The Isle needs 4 GB of RAM, more than the 2 GB of Free, so the hourglass runs twice as fast: 3 hours become 90 minutes of real play a day. With nobody online the server stops after 30 minutes, and at peak times a Free start can wait briefly in a queue. With 4 slots and no backups, Free is for trying the game, not for a community.
Casual (€3/month) does not fit The Isle, because it has 2 GB of RAM. An empty Gateway holds about 1.2 GB, and every player, carcass and AI creature adds to it. Starter is enough for a small herd; for many players and a lot of AI, take Pro. Paid plans can be refunded on request within 3 days.
7. If something goes wrong
- The server is not in the browser: wait a minute after Online and check that your game is on the same build. After a game patch, restart the server so it pulls the new build.
- An Epic Online Services error right after the start: the server could not reach the Epic services. Start it again in a few minutes.
- No admin tools in the game: add your SteamID64 under Admins in the Game tab and restart.
- A player lost a grown dinosaur: check their data with
playerdatain the Console before you restore a backup.
If your group also likes co-op survival with friends, our guides to a Valheim dedicated server and a Dragonwilds dedicated server follow the same steps, and our ARK: Survival Evolved server guide covers the other dinosaur classic.
Written on 2026-10-28. Game facts come from the Steam store page and Afterthought's official announcements on Steam, checked that day; panel fields, commands and plans come from 1up v1.49.0 of the same day.
Change log
- 2026-10-28: first version.